Curse of Riches

By: Claire Prentice

Narrated by: Claire Prentice, Hillary Huber

How did the Wendels, one of New York’s most famous Gilded Age families, disappear from history?

The Wendels built a fortune from New York real estate, and rubbed shoulders with the Astors, Vanderbilts, and Stuyvesants. But as the 19th century came to an end, the Wendel family tore itself apart with a series of high-profile sibling squabbles, accusations of insanity and promiscuity, false imprisonment, and unseemly legal battles over love and money.

Following six years of painstaking archival research, Claire Prentice has prised open the door of the Wendels’ Fifth Avenue mansion—dubbed “the house of mystery” by the press—to reveal a fascinating and dysfunctional family imprisoned in a gilded cage.

It’s a true tale stranger than any fiction, filled with vivid characters who struggle to find happiness in a world of unimaginable wealth, and a secret love story between master and maid.

In the words of one reporter writing in 1926, “You would have to go back to the works of Dickens to find a tale as curious and fascinating as that of this old mansion and its occupants.”

Praise for Curse of Riches:

“Gripping, and cinematic, Curse of Riches electrifies readers. Prentice seamlessly blends research and narration to deliver this tale of thwarted romance, headstrong heroines, and the persistence of love and a dream, even when great fortunes fall. A Succession for the Gilded Age—Curse of Riches and unfolds with the logic of a feverish dream. I couldn’t put it down.” (Marie Mutsuki Mockett, author of American Harvest: God, Country and Farming in the Heartland and Where the Dead Pause and the Japanese Say Goodbye)

“In this deeply researched tale, supported by access to diaries, letters, legal and business documents, Claire Prentice peels back the curtain on this weird and long-forgotten family, once among the wealthiest in New York. True stories of rich people behaving badly or strangely offer a glimpse into the money, power, love, heartbreak, madness, hatred, and despair of eccentric and extravagantly dysfunctional families. The secretive, stranger-than-fiction Wendels of New York during the Gilded Age embodied F. Scott Fitzgerald’s oft-quoted comment on the rich: 'They are different from you and me.’ It's a thrilling, shocking read.” (Neal Thompson, author of The First Kennedys and A Curious Man)

"Meet the Wendel family: seven reclusive adult siblings living off a family real estate fortune and growing old together in an anachronism of a house on increasingly commercialized Fifth Avenue. Claire Prentice’s lively, deeply researched narrative about this mysterious clan is both a character study as well as a window into New York City from the Gilded Age to the modern era. I really loved this story." (Esther Crain, author of The Gilded Age in New York, 1870—1910, and creator of the Ephemeral New York website)

"Claire Prentice's A Curse of Riches reads like something out of Henry James, but is stranger than any fiction. Here is the riveting, gothic, real-life tale of the wealthiest, weirdest Gilded Age family that you've never heard of. You won't be able to put it down." (Kevin Baker, author of Paradise Alley and America the Ingenious: How a Nation of Dreamers, Immigrants, and Tinkerers Changed the World)

©2022 Claire Prentice (P)2022 Audible Originals, LLC.

Great book

I love nonFiction or books based on real life. This did not disappoint. Truly shows that money doesn’t buy happiness!

Interesting

I would recommend this book to anyone with interest in the gilded age or anyone not knowing about this family.

Fascinating Tale of a Bygone Family & Era

It’s a tale of a gilded age New York City family long since forgotten. It is a well researched story that brings to life the unusual tale of the Wendel family. The author does a great job bringing out the human side of the family members.

Excellent!

I was gripped from the first sentence! Might be my most favorite read of this year.

Unexpected!

This book was surprisingly engaging and interesting. While I was trying to exercise patience waiting for the second season of the Gilded Age on Max, I hungrily looked for other entertainments of that period on the tv and in books. I’ve never heard of the Wendell family but being aware that many families of that time were just as intriguing as the prominent families who made the headlines, I took a chance. The story is so fascinating that as I approached the final chapters I began to search the very many movie channels for the movie about them, to no avail. I only came away with movies and documentaries about the families we are already familiar with. Very disappointing. Anyway, I appreciate the author for going down the proverbial rabbit hole and congratulate her on a work well done👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

Fascinating

Stranger than fiction and Very well told.
Interesting for anyone to learn about,
Particularly those who love NY!

Great unknown story of New York history

Astonishing, interesting, surprising and very well written. Great for history buffs and those fascinated with American history.

So good

Such a great story about a family no one knows about
It goes to show money doesn’t make you happy

A triumph of research

I had never heard of the Wendels before Audible recommended this book. I was in good company. The fact that an immensely wealthy family of New York City landowners was forgotten is perhaps best illustrated by the lack of even one Wikipedia article! Nonetheless, author Claire Prentiss has unearthed an engrossing story. Anybody who owned billions in real estate in Gilded Age NYC would be fascinating, at least to me. But the cast of oddballs in this particular family was "special," even for an era brimming with rich eccentrics. The Wendels consisted of six unmarried daughters and one unmarried son. Only one daughter married...at the age of 61. Unlike their contemporaries, the Astors, Vanderbilts and Carnegies, there were no further heirs to expand, squander or squabble over the remaining fortune. In their lifetimes, the Wendels stubbornly held on to their vast properties and their privacy. The author really had to dig the archives of old newspapers and historic papers to track down enough details to make a fluent tale out of what she uncovered. Still, I found the story vaguely tragic. It is as cob web covered as the old Fifth Avenue mansion they refused to sell. A large part of the saga is devoted to the family patriarch, John Wendel, who allegedly maintained a 32-year affair with Martha, a former family employee who bore him an illegitimate son. Racy stuff in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Apparently, Martha went through a LOT for love of John. Prentice gleaned the most intimate aspects of her drama from surviving letters, legal documents and God knows what other sources. There was ultimately a financial settlement on Martha and her son, but never a legal acknowledgement of their kinship. The other significant portion of the story covers the travails of one Wendel sister, Georgie, who spent her life running from John's repeated attempts to have her confined in mental hospitals. Finally, there were thousands of would-be "heirs" who burst from the woodwork in 1931 when the last Wendel sister died. With all the money and bizarro elements, the most remarkable thing about this story is the virtual disappearance of the Wendels from history and memory.

Could not stop listening!!

What an amazing story! The level of historical preservation that was needed for this is fascinating!! And most of us have no idea who these people even were.